What isstructured data?
Machine readable information on your website, and what it achieves today.
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Get your website checked or call: +49 151 1576 5566Structured data is a standardised format that tells search engines explicitly what a page contains: which company, which product, which article, which address. A person sees at a glance that the number below a product photo is the price, a machine has to work that out, and structured data does that work for it.
- The shared vocabulary is called schema.org, founded by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex.
- Google supports three formats and recommends the one that keeps the code apart from the visible text.
- Google requires no special markup for AI Overviews and AI Mode.
- Only mark up what is actually visible on the page.
What does structured data do for your visibility in search?
First, it is the prerequisite for rich results, meaning search results with review stars, prices or a breadcrumb trail under the title. It's no guarantee, though: Google decides by query, device and location which display to show, even when the markup has no errors.
Then there's clarity. With the Organization type on your homepage, name, address, logo and website are explicitly tied to one company instead of being scattered through the text, and according to Google that helps tell your business apart from others. If another firm shares your name, that's worth a lot (anyone who has been mixed up with a namesake knows what we mean).
Do you need structured data for AI search?
For Google the answer is no, in official words. Its documentation lists no additional requirements and no special schema.org markup for AI Overviews and AI Mode, and the guide to generative AI features published on 15 May 2026 states that structured data isn't required for generative AI search. In the same paragraph, though, Google recommends keeping it as part of your SEO strategy because of rich results.
So anyone promising that a particular markup will get you into Google's AI Overviews is promising something Google itself denies. For ChatGPT or Perplexity we found no comparably detailed statement, which only means we found none.
Frequently asked questions
Is schema markup the same as structured data?
In everyday use, yes. Schema markup means structured data using the schema.org vocabulary, and that's the usual approach today.
Should I remove my FAQPage markup?
You don't have to. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results on 7 May 2026, but the markup does no harm and remains a valid schema.org type.
How do I check my structured data?
With Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator, and after publishing through the status reports in Search Console.
Terms you should know in the same context
AI Overviews · llms.txt · E-E-A-T · GEO (generative engine optimization) · Google indexing · Back to the AI glossary A to Z
Clean markup makes your company unambiguous, but it doesn't buy you a place in AI answers.